So 4+ years on since the pairing first Dominated the raiding scene.

[JanVanding]

AST/SCH is still the undisputed meta pairing.

Now I don't think this is actually because the jobs themselves are overpowered

On the contrary, I think it's because from a design philosophy standpoint, they are exactly what every raid needs them to be which is why no other combination can reach the same ceiling and hasn't been able to since Stormblood.

I think it's high time that the devs stopped kidding themselves that loading WHM/SGE with more healing or personal damage is ever going to make a dent in the flexibility and utility that AST/SCH has long brought to the table.

The only way they ever get other options and pairings is simple.

They need to even the playing field.

Look at what makes AST/SCH such a "go to" pairing, why does the raiding scene prefer them always? What utility can we potentially add to the other two to put them in contention?

Be aware, I'm not asking for nerfs, nerfing is not the way forward, I'm simply asking them to consider utility options for WHM/SGE that puts them as contending options instead of how it currently is now.

Because right now? After 4 years of much the same pairing reigning supreme, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm frankly more than a little tired of it and dying to see meaningful change instead of haphazardly attempting to break the pairing up with nerfs that will never work because the one thing they bring that the other two healers can never match.

[Risvertasashi]

AST/SCH is still the undisputed meta pairing.

Except it's not.

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Now to first answer your question, the easy answer is powerful heals + raid buffs. Even if it's not "the best" damage (though often it has been), people like that it pumps up their rank on FF logs, and then add in reliable healing on top of that, and you have a combination that was often winning.

-

Now let's go back to the first point. AST+SCH is not the undisputed meta. SCH+SGE has the best damage. Now a lot of people don't want to run dual shield healers - it takes exceptional players to make it worth without the raw healing of the others available, and a lot of coordination to avoid healers annoying eachother by overwriting shields. But if you want the best damage, it's the combo.

If you overgear fights to the point where shields aren't strictly necessary, AST+WHM is also pretty high output right now.

SCH+WHM is a bit behind AST+WHM, but only very very slightly. To the point where for 99.9% of groups it's going to be meaningless. For the 0.1% (if that) that might be trying to get that last few seconds of the world's fastest speedskill, SGE+SCH would be better.

AST+SCH isn't doing too bad but it's not the undisputed master, and the others are as close as they've ever been. If anything, at least in terms of damage contribution, things are about the most balanced they've ever been. Of course, there will always be those that go "Well SCH and AST pad my parse so I want them no matter what." But the only way you're going to get rid of that is further homogenization: make all healers selfish DPS, or make all healers raid buffers.

[Teno]

There's not such a disparity that you can consider "meta" jobs in the sense that most people will read it, ie some jobs being much stronger than others.

[Absurdity]

Now let's go back to the first point. AST+SCH is not the undisputed meta. SCH+SGE has the best damage. Now a lot of people don't want to run dual shield healers - it takes exceptional players to make it worth without the raw healing of the others available, and a lot of coordination to avoid healers annoying eachother by overwriting shields. But if you want the best damage, it's the combo.

I would go further and claim that you don't even need exceptional players for this. We had less issues in P4S with SGE+SCH than we did with SGE+WHM or SGE+AST and every time the latter was a random pug.

The whole regen/barrier healer split is complete nonsense since all of them still have regens in their toolkit and more than enough healing output. Even the shields aren't an issue since neither of them is usually casting GCD shields, the only ones that do not stack.

The only negative I can think of is that SGE+SCH is weak when it comes to recovering from badly timed deaths.

[IllyaPrisma]

Aside from Max Percentile where AST is in second place, AST is at the bottom for rDPS at 99th and below. They also have significantly fewer parses than the other 3 healers, as it appears that despite ASTs strength in a raid setting, the absolute horrendous state the job is currently in keeps most players off of it. AST is slated for "major adjustments" in 6.2, which will hopefully address button bloat and maybe even address issues with the card system.

[ty_taurus]

SGE sacrifices utility and offensive buffs in exchange for high personal DPS that does outperform SCH & AST even with their raid buffs. It's also no slouch on mitigation and offers the highest total sustained healing even if its burst healing potential is low. The fact that its GCD barriers don't stack with SCH's is largely irrelevant as a good SGE rarely casts barriers to begin with, and since SCH's barriers are generally better thanks to Deployment Tactics, SGE very comfortably takes a back seat to rare instances of barrier healing when paired with a SCH.

SCH offers decent damage and a very powerful raid buff in Chain Stratagem as well as greater party utility over SGE. Expedient and Deployment Critlo offer a much wider safety net than what SGE can provide making it especially safer for less confident healers and parties. Something to note that applies to AST as well is that raid buffs shine very strongly at the beginning of a raid tier because the healer doesn't need to roll for gear in order to improve in contributions since geared DPS will add to your contributions for you during buff windows. SGE needs to be selfish to keep up with SCH and AST early on which isn't ideal.

AST lacks overall offensive contributions, but once again buffs do matter especially at the beginning of a raid tier (and the DPS love the constant flat boosts overall). It just has extremely powerful healing resources and burst healing potential, which is especially helpful and safe for tight healing windows such as final Coherence during P2S (and of course Death's Toll). Savage can have some demanding heal moments which AST can do far easier than any of the other healers, and it's not just Macrocosmos we're talking about. Neutral Sect, Earthly Star, and Collective Unconscious are all extremely useful and are straight up better than most of what anyone else offers in terms of healing. It's not necessary by any means, but AST makes healing checks far easier.

Any combination of these 3 has value. SGE offers high performance, AST offers high safety and great early prog benefits, and SCH fits comfortably in the middle offering good performance, good prog benefits, and good safety. I'd say that's pretty nicely balanced for the most part. If they can preserve that balance and finally fix healer gameplay, we could have a really fun and healthy healer meta.

[Semirhage]

Any combination of these 3 has value. SGE offers high performance, AST offers high safety and great early prog benefits, and SCH fits comfortably in the middle offering good performance, good prog benefits, and good safety. I'd say that's pretty nicely balanced for the most part. If they can preserve that balance and finally fix healer gameplay, we could have a really fun and healthy healer meta.

I'd agree as long as WHM has a place in that meta after fixing healer gameplay, and isn't relegated to where it's basically always been: "SGE is performance, AST is safety, SCH is a balance between the two, and WHM eats crayons."

[VerdeLuck]

I'd rather have WHM stay off meta than have it become like AST. I like playing WHM and if I wanted to play AST or SCH I would pick those instead.

[Vencio]

Who cares?

You heal, heal,

Follow mechanics,

Win,

Simple,

Only fools dictates what’s META & by so going for statistics/math numbers bullshit they come up,

At the ends it’s all about performing well & being in synced with everyone & mechanics.

This is not WoW; leave that for that nightmare of a game

[ty_taurus]

WHM needs to have its own selling point. Disregarding gameplay for a moment and strictly discussing performance, it doesn't have the be the strongest healer, but it should at least have something that it is the best at--something that has some amount of value. For example, if WHM could become the best healer for raising--something unneeded in clean runs but helpful in messy runs. That could be something like Reraise, or WHM Triplecast that makes 3 spells instant cast, or maybe something that prevents someone's HP from hitting 0 once. Or Perhaps WHM becomes a healer with access to very potent increased healing action potency buffs or healing received buffs--something that outshines the other healers in that regard and allows them to combo nicely with barriers and regens from either healer.

The balance of healers could look something like this in order of highest DPS output to lowest:

1. SGE - Highest total DPS. Highest sustained healing but lowest burst healing. Good mitigation. No utility. Benefits the most from buff windows.
2. WHM - Second highest total DPS. Good burst healing but low mitigation. Increases total healing output significantly and/or is the best at raising. Benefits from buff windows.
3. SCH - Second lowest total DPS. Good sustained healing, good burst healing, great mitigation. Strongest barriers & has expedient. Offers light party buffs.
4. AST - Lowest total DPS. Greatest burst healing, good sustained healing, good mitigation, greatest MP management. Offers prominent party buffs.